Word.ws English Dictionary

led the way

led the way is the simple past and past participle of lead the way.

Meaning of lead the way

Verb

lead the way (third-person singular simple present leads the way, present participle leading the way, simple past and past participle led the way)

  1. (literally) To proceed first in a journey, procession, etc., so that others can follow.
  2. (figuratively) To act as a guide or pioneer.
    • The native-born and the "naturalised" locomotives have been giving way to the standardised types, of which the L.M.S.R. class "5" 4-6-0 has led the way and has penetrated the furthest.1958 July, J. P. Wilson, “Scottish Soliloquy”, in Railway Magazine, page 495

Questions about led the way

What is led the way the simple past and past participle of?
Led the way is the simple past and past participle of lead the way.

Words near led the way in the dictionary

  1. led out
  2. led someone down the garden path
  3. led someone up the garden path
  4. led the charge
  5. led the line
  6. led the way
  7. led through
  8. led to
  9. led up to
  10. led with one's chin
  11. Led Zep

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: led the way (page history and authors); lead the way (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “led the way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/led_the_way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.